


Fight or Flight

by LePetitCroissant



Series: Bandaids [2]
Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, after they save Alex, before Topher shows up, bring them BACK, deanoru - Freeform, every six months like clockwork, i get possessed by deanoru, lol I forgot Topher shows up so that's not mentioned at all, man i miss them, mentions the minorus, mentions the other runaways, sigh, this is set post 2x03 training episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28915476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LePetitCroissant/pseuds/LePetitCroissant
Summary: Nico and Karolina have a talk about the whole "Chase, punch me" during their training session.
Relationships: Karolina Dean/Nico Minoru
Series: Bandaids [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120724
Comments: 3
Kudos: 54





	Fight or Flight

**Author's Note:**

> Yo, have I ever mentioned how much I miss this show and these two? No? Well, I do. Anyway, I'm trying to turn this into a series so maybe it'll have more work and maybe it won't lol there's no telling what happens anymore. 
> 
> Also, I absolutely hate dialogue so personally I think this is super clunky but feel free to tell me otherwise. I'm also on tumblr just look up dishonoringthefamilycow.

Nico has had herself _a day_.

Scratch that – Nico’s had herself what feels like one excruciatingly long, continuous day from the moment she showed up at Alex Wilder’s guest house after an emotional bonfire at a beach.

Now, twice in as many days, she’s left with her entire body aching and an exhaustion that’s _bone-deep_. Her mental state is spent, and all she wants is to be able to curl up in their dingy bed, wrap herself around her girlfriend, and secretly hope that said girlfriend will accidentally glow in her sleep again tonight and warm her up.

In the back of her mind, she knows that all she’d need to do is ask and Karolina’d be more than happy to oblige, albeit after an appropriate amount of teasing. But Nico’s got issues about feelings, or generally having them, and admitting to needing help with something as inane as warming up makes her feel too vulnerable and exposed. And after the day she’s had, she just wants to seem a little tough. Especially to her girlfriend.

(She grumbles to herself when she remembers their failed attempt at training, when she’d unintentionally started a competition with her friends about who was best, only to have Chase knock her on her ass _right in front of Karolina_. How utterly _uncool_.)

She stares at the Staff sitting on the dresser in front of her, then glancing back up at her bruise across her chest – the one Tina put there, the one that hadn’t even had a chance to heal yet before Chase- no, before the Staff failed to block Chase’s hit. Before _she_ failed.

(There’s a voice in the back of her mind that sounds a little like Tina, reprimanding her that she had it coming for becoming so smug after successfully casting _one_ spell, before even really understanding her power.)

(The voice in her head that’s firmly Nico’s own, the one that she spent the two years since Amy honing, aiming, and firing at her parents like an expert marksman retaliates that it is no way, shape, or form Nico’s fault because _Tina_ didn’t teach her anything useful about the Staff. She was too busy being a murderer.)

(There’s a small voice, weak and meek and so very small that belongs to a little girl who just misses her family and a life she knew so very long ago that whispers that she shouldn’t have to learn how to wield a _weapon_ because she’s only seventeen; she should be agonizing over calculus and having a meltdown in Amy’s room about what to wear on her first date with the pretty blond that’s loved her all her life.)

Nico’s starting to spiral.

Her eyes are squeezed shut as she tries to keep her breathing under control. Tries to keep breathing at all.

When the warmth presses into her back, wraps around her waist, Nico’s entire body – coiled tight like a viper ready to strike at the smallest impression of a threat – instantly loosens.

She’d know that touch anywhere.

(And it’s a terrifying thought; how quickly she’s learned all the intricacies of Karolina, all the different ways Karolina exists in Nico. How quickly she’s come to _need_ every bit of Karolina in between her cracks and crevices and voids.)

(How quickly she’s _falling_.)

(Nico knows, without a doubt, that when her body finally hits ground from these heights, it will _hurt_. That her whole body will splinter and shatter so completely, down to a cellular level.)

(All Nico does is adjust so she’s falling head-first instead.)

It’s quiet, but spoken so closely against her that she feels it more than she hears it, Karolina’s words vibrating and burrowing in against her as she lets out a deep breath, her body melting back into Karolina’s.

“You’re so tense…”

There’s an asshole part in her brain that wiggles its eyebrows and smirks lewdly, piping up and telling her to tell Karolina to ‘help her relax then’.

But the bigger part of her brain, the one that’s a useless homosexual mess in the face of the pretty blond – who glows every shade of the rainbow and smiles so sweetly it reminds Nico of her favorite chocolate bar when it melts _just right_ after being forgotten in her bag all day – reminds her that Karolina’s definitely the smooth one in this relationship.

So she just hums and leans fully into Karolina’s arms, murmuring that, “it’s been a tense day.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Today, this girl I really like threw herself in front of military-grade gadget that’s so experimental it sets its targets on fire with nothing for protection except a glowing stick and a dangerous smirk.”

Nico can’t help it when she snorts, her hunched shoulders easing a little as she aims that dangerous smirk up at Karolina in their reflection, only to have it dim a little at Karolina’s unimpressed raised brow.

“We needed to train… that includes learning how to block an attack, which doesn’t always happen; you get hurt in a battle.”

Nico purses her lips against the cold chill that settles along her spine when Karolina steps back, crossing her arms as she sits on their bed.

Nico’s never really seen her be this upset before.

“There are better ways to train that don’t involve you throwing yourself in front of a dangerous tool built by a seventeen year old high school drop out.”

“Hey, Chase is a genius. I trust him; we all have to trust each other if we want to get through all of this.”

“I didn’t say I don’t trust _Chase_ , Nico, I just don’t trust the _weapon_ he’s _still_ tinkering with. The test dummy he shot _caught on fire._ ”

“ _I_ didn’t catch fire; I’m fine! Really, the whole thing _looked_ worse than it actually felt.”

“She says, as she continues to rub and roll the shoulder she landed on _after flying through a door._ ”

Nico’s arm drops instantly, internally repeating a mantra to herself to hold still even though Karolina’s making a lot of sense. But she’s tired and she’s had herself A Day, so when her body decides the best route to take here is to be stubborn and maybe a little snappy, she doesn’t fight it.

“Look, I’m fine, everything’s fine. You don’t have to be worried about me.”

Karolina’s eyebrows raise so far up her forehead so fast Nico worries they’ll shoot off her face entirely.

“Are you serious right now? You’re telling me not to worry about you? When you’re recklessly and needlessly throwing yourself in harm’s way? Really, Nico?”

“Says the one who sent everyone away to fight a literal super alien that kidnapped her.”

“That was different, I did that to save us.”

“It didn’t absolutely terrify me about losing you any less.”

Nico wants to feel pleased that she might have won this discussion when she sees Karolina’s arguments die in her throat, but all this debate does is bring one of the worst nights of her life back to the forefront of her mind.

She’d spent a good amount of time suppressing those feelings of mind-numbing fear and trauma, thank you. She didn’t want them back.

Gingerly, she settles in beside Karolina, taking her hand. Briefly, inanely, it crosses her mind that she’s topless and this isn’t really a discussion to be had topless. _Inanely_ , she thinks about how there are so many better things they could be doing topless.

“That night was _awful._ I still have nightmares about it, even when I’m not asleep. That feeling- no, that _knowledge_ that I could have lost you forever that night? I can’t feel that again. I _won’t_. If that means I have to get my ass handed to me every single day as we train, if that’s what it takes for me to be strong enough to stand beside you next time you try to be a self-sacrificing _idiot-_ ” she says it with so much love, it’d fill two galaxies over, “then bring it on.”

Karolina wishes she could argue, but she knows – deep down, right in her marrow – that she’d do the same thing too. Every time. For each person in their underground home, and twice over for Nico.

“And you think me watching you get hurt is a better alternative? That that moment when you stood there and _dared_ Chase to attack you didn’t nearly give me a panic attack?”

“Karolina-”

“No, Nico, don’t do that. Don’t give me some crap about training or getting strong. Don’t. I’m not stupid; I _get_ that we need to be prepared, but that doesn’t mean diving head-first into unnecessary danger just to prove a point.”

Nico smiles faintly; if only Karolina understood how deeply Nico has already dived in. She hopes even a fraction of her feelings come across in the gentle kiss she presses to Karolina’s forehead.

She practically feels all of Karolina’s fears filter out of her as she exhales slowly, her eyes closed and her fingers gently holding Nico’s close in her lap.

That night, after they’ve settled into bed after a tense silence, after they’ve kissed and talked about that night at the dig site some more, and then kissed even more, when Karolina’s settled into being the little spoon and let her lights run rampant when Nico teasingly murmurs against her ear that “warmth’s really good for my sore muscles, y’know…” Karolina’s words break the soothing silence with a quaking voice, “I just want you to be safe, Nico. Just- tell me we’ll find a better way to train. _Please._ ”

“I promise,” Nico whispers back, sealing it with a kiss to the back of Karolina’s hand that lifts to find Nico’s hair, her palm warming as she takes in the glow of Karolina’s lights that shine more intensely with her mood; like maybe she’s not fully in control of them right now, or they’re trying to escape to the surface to wrap Nico in their protection.

Nico presses another kiss to her hand, turning her palm over to receive it; lingering, worshipping. Full of unspoken promise and love.


End file.
